A window sticker on the back window of the Volks-wagen van helps customers find PhotoMoto.

A window sticker on the back window of the Volks-wagen van helps customers find PhotoMoto.

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

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A sign instructs patrons inside the PhotoMoto mobile photo booth. "It's so cool that you can fit a whole family in there," one customer says.

A sign instructs patrons inside the PhotoMoto mobile photo booth. "It's so cool that you can fit a whole family in there," one customer says.

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

Picture this: a photo booth on wheels

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Designers are fond of saying "form follows function," but sometimes the two can go hand in hand.

Take the restored '78 Volkswagen van that Austin and Brittany Havican of Houston have converted into a photo booth. Sleek and stylish, the black and white bus travels to weddings, family reunions and the like, photographing party-goers with different props.

"I was reading a magazine during my lunch break about a guy in England who took a double-decker bus and turned it into an entire photography studio, and I thought, 'Why not?' " Havican said. "I've always wanted to work on an old VW, and we kept seeing pictures of our friends that they'd get at these photo booths."

Brittany Havican, 35, is a registered nurse by day and wedding photographer on the weekends. She'd noticed brides had begun to use more photo booths at their receptions and she wanted to be able to offer them the same service.

So the couple began scouring the area for an old VW bus. They found one in January, but it was bright orange with gray primer. On the plus side, its owner had installed air bags to lower the bus to the ground, which was something the Havicans wanted to do anyway.

"What that means is there's a compressor with a tank and distributor that goes to each wheel, and you can raise or lower the frame of the bus," Austin Havican said. "And I was thinking that I wanted brides and guests and older people to be able to easily get in and out of it."

Restoration of the VW took four months, with Havican doing some of the engine work himself. It made its debut as a photo booth at an event in April.

Inside the bus is a mounted Canon camera that takes strips of pictures, plus crazy wigs, oversized sunglasses and other playful props.

"Honestly, that was the one thing that I got the most compliments on," said Megan Edwards, who used PhotoMoto at her November nuptials in Conroe. "It's so cool that you can fit a whole family in there, and I even had people who took their picture from our wedding and used it for a Christmas card."

Rates to rent the custom photo booth range from $600 to $900. More than half of those who sign up for the service are brides-to-be.

"I'd say our demographic is people in their 20s and 30s, and they appreciate the aesthetics of it," Havican said. "A lot of times they're getting married and they want some tradition, but they want things slightly skewed or a more interesting interpretation of standard things."